Sealskin Woman

There once was a very lonely Inuit hunter who one night came upon a group of seal women who had taken their skins off and were dancing and singing and celebrating on the rocks along the Great Northern Ocean. The hunter hid low in his kayak and watched these beautiful creatures from beneath the sea and because he was so lonely decided to take one of the skins and hide it. When the dawn started to break, the seals put their skins back on to return to the ocean. One of them could not find her skin, and the hunter approached her and asked her to be his wife. She refused at first, but when she looked deeply into his eyes, she agreed to stay for seven years, and she could decide then if to stay or not.

And so it was that the hunter took her home and in due course she had a son. Even though they lived happily together, she never stopped longing for her home and family under the sea. With every year that passed she became more pale; she began to wither, so she had trouble seeing and walking. After seven years she asked for her skin back, but her husband refused and said she would leave him and their son.

One day her young son heard his name called in the wind, and he followed the sound to a cleft in the rock by the ocean. There he found his mother's skin and brought it to her. She could not resist putting it on, nor could she stop herself from returning to her water home. Her son pleaded with her not to go and she breathed into his lungs her breath and dove into the ocean with him and took him to meet her family. After seven days he had to return to the land, and there was a sorrowful parting of mother and son.

Her husband missed his wife terribly, but she did not return. Her son grew to be a mighty drummer, singer and storyteller. And once a year it was observed that he went to the rock where she had danced and played and was seen bending over as if talking to someone under the water.

Back to Recent Shows